America is no longer in the box seat when it comes to dictating policy to the world. That the United States is still by far the largest single national economy in the world, possessing the mightiest military force and dominance in space-age technology, is a given. That American national debt is preposterous both in its size and the nation’s inability to control it is the matter of daily headlines. That the U.S. is to blame for the global financial crisis is increasingly being declared as such by leaders in the world’s greatest single trading combine, the European Union, especially within Germany. That reality, and its consequences, will be vocalized, very stridently, by nations gloating over America’s demise this week at the G-20 summit in Washington commencing Saturday.

What really counts in international relations is not so much the reality of a nation’s power, but the perception by other nations of that power. And perceptions of U.S. power are rapidly changing around the world, especially since the results of the latest U.S. presidential election were posted.

The U.S. is a drastically divided nation politically. Barack Obama did not win the U.S. election by a landslide popular vote. Thus, there is still a very deep chasm between conservative and liberal voters in the U.S., notwithstanding the impression that the liberal press seeks to tout of a nation caught up in the spirit of Obamamania.

Dream on!

The fact is, there has seldom been a more opportune moment this century for America’s enemies to take advantage of its political, social and economic sclerosis to force their own will upon the U.S.

The perception of America that is spreading throughout world leadership circles, especially among America’s enemies, is of a nation that has had its day. A nation in a state of rapid decline—morally, socially and economically. A nation whose military force is stretched to the breaking point, with a drastically reduced capability to support its national goals, let alone play policeman to the world.

Enter the European Union, in particular the Franco-German connection.

“[T]he political class on the old continent has been upgraded to savior of the financial system …,” Spiegel wrote on October 28.

Those who have been watching developments beyond the shores of America ought to be struck by the new sense of urgency sparking the divisive EU into more affirmative action, with an unusual touch of unanimity, in preparation for this week’s summit of nations convened in Washington to discuss the global economic crisis.

Over the past month, it has been the EU leadership that has driven the agenda to establish a new system to regulate the global economy. The EU has held numerous conferences on the subject, its leaders have visited the U.S. and China and held talks also with Russian leaders to set the tone for Wednesday’s summit in Washington. Last week, EU states voted unanimously on a course of action they will present to the Washington summit, fully expecting that their lead in that forum will be respected and their recommendations accepted. The EU idea is to establish a new form of global economic governance following EU guidelines on the regulation of the global financial system. The Union is already firmly entrenched as a global leader in the regulation of business and commerce—to the extent that it has already extracted massive fines from global corporations that have infringed its onerous regulations. Thus, the precedents are set on which to further consolidate increasing control by the EU of global business.

“The EU agreed on Friday a general line to take at a Washington summit of world leaders next week, which includes initiating a period of 100 days to draw up proposals on reforming the international financial system.

“One hundred days after November 15, the date of the G-20 summit in the U.S., a new meeting is to be held to look at how much progress has been made on the goals” (TheParliament.com, November 7).

Of the Group of 20 principal nations meeting in Washington, only the European Union, acting as a federal body with a single voice, has an articulated strategy to lay before the summit. EU President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s finance minister are laying the blame for the global economic and financial crisis squarely on America. Sarkozy, hinting at the anti-U.S. tone the EU will adopt at the summit, declared, “This is a world crisis, but we know perfectly well where it started. We will not allow nothing to be done. Europe will not accept an explanation that says nothing has happened” (ibid., emphasis mine throughout).

Yet, as all eyes turn to Washington this week for an inkling of just what form any new global system of finance and economic control might take, we would do well to ponder the current mood in Germany that this global crisis has created.

In Germany, two phenomena are have been catalyzed by the global economic crunch: a change in politicians’ thinking, and a change in the mood of the people. Both spell trouble for the future.

As Spiegel Online reported, “The effects of the worldwide economic crisis are leading to a new globalization in politics. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking unity in Europe to deal with the financial crisis, while at home consensus and cooperation are the new watchwords. Is it the beginning of a new politics?” (November 3). Historically, crisis in Germany has always led to a “new politics,” with disastrous results. Too often that “new politics” has paved the way for a demagogue to take advantage of the national mood swing in times of economic challenge.

On the current mood of the people in Germany, Spiegel Online observes, “Rarely has the mood in Germany been so strange. It is as if Germans were living in two worlds, a real world in the here and now, and an imaginary world in an unpleasant tomorrow. The country, like the rest of the world, is in transit, and no one knows where the journey is headed” (ibid.).

The most prophetic result of the global economic crisis, relating to the European Union, is the opportunity it is presenting for the realization of a long-sought Teutonic imperial dream: the binding together of old Europe under a single economic government. Joschka Fischer, Germany’s foreign minister in the Schröder government era, was moved to make public his view that “Europe needs an economic government. The individual nations are simply too small to handle a crisis of this magnitude” (Spiegel Online, op. cit.). Unsurprisingly, Fischer thinks that European economic government should be modeled along Germanic lines.

Journalist Dirk Kurbjuweit comments on a new “politics of the backroom” having been stimulated by the financial crisis in Germany. “… Germany stands for the social market economy, with all of its rules and regulations,” he wrote. “[G]lobal policy for German politicians must, most of all, be integration policy in Europe. … Germany currently has something akin to a secret chancellorship. … [C]oncepts that compete directly with freedom are gaining in popularity: enforcement, control. … The overriding question, therefore, is this: How will freedom and control be doled out in the future?” (Spiegel Online, op. cit.).

How indeed?

With so much media attention being given to the president-elect in the U.S., few there be who detect the change in politics and the mood swing in Germany that is morphing out of this great global financial and economic crisis.

Watch the G-20 summit in Washington for a newly assertive European Union to force its way in the outcome of that vital conference.

Watch Germany as it faces a federal election in the coming year, with all state elections being conducted in the lead-up to that national election continuing to swing right as the mood in Germany changes.

And as you watch, remember the words of Herbert Armstrong, who declared that a strong and forceful leader would again arise in Germany amid great social upheaval triggered by the collapse of the global financial and economic system!

We would be foolish indeed to ignore these signs of the times and not prepare for the obvious.

Read our booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire for deeper insight into just what it is that is building before your eyes in the construct of the new global order in the wake of America’s decline.